The present invention relates to an apparatus for transport and controlled discharge of a load, comprising a frame with a guide for a series of displaceable transport containers, drive means for carrying the transport containers in an endless track, a resetting device for placing a transport container in a starting position and a discharge station for selectively receiving a load of a transport container, wherein the transport containers are provided with an at least partially movable carrying panel for receiving of the load thereon, comprising a tray which can be operated selectively between a transporting position and a discharge position.
Such an apparatus is applied in particular as sorting device for goods in distribution centres, mail order companies and production environments where different products have to be brought together per (dispatch) destination. The goods for sorting can per se be of many types but particularly comprise books, magazines, items of clothing and other articles with a significant own weight. The apparatus herein normally comprises a connected series of a few dozen to a few hundred transport containers in accordance with the desired sorting capacity. Per discharge station a dispatch box or other receiving means can be placed in which the goods are received per destination. The goods are supplied from a loading station to the transport containers in a sequence which is in principle random and identified manually or otherwise. The drive means carries the transport containers around the track at a relatively high speed, wherein at a certain moment a transport container will pass the discharge station for which the carried product is intended. Having arrived there, an electronic control of the apparatus sets means of the discharge station into operation which are able to actuate the locking mechanism of the transport container and thus release the tilt trays. Under the influence of the force of gravity the tilt trays drop open almost immediately and thus discharge the product into the waiting dispatch box or the like. The transport container then passes over the resetting device, wherein the two tilt trays are closed and the transport container is returned to its starting position, ready for a subsequent lap. Products can thus be distributed over the different discharge stations with a relatively large sorting capacity.
A known apparatus of the type indicated in the preamble is described in a Netherlands patent application made open to public inspection under number 9100108. The known apparatus comprises a drive means in the form of an endless chain to which is coupled a series of transport containers which are each guided on a first longitudinal side over a substantially vertical guide with two systems of four guide wheels and hang freely on an opposite longitudinal side. Owing to the relatively high own weight of the transport containers, which in practice may be in the order of magnitude of 20 kilograms, the guide is herein subjected to a relatively heavy load whereby the guide wheels and the guide itself have to take a correspondingly heavy form to withstand these loads. This not only makes the apparatus extra-costly but also more susceptible to wear. The transport chain will moreover stretch continuously during operation, whereby it will have to be regularly re-tensioned and the apparatus will thereby have to be taken out of operation.
A more uniform distribution of forces is achieved in another known apparatus of the type stated in the preamble known from a Netherlands patent application made open to public inspection under number 9400388. The apparatus herein comprises a guide in the form of two parallel u-profiles with their open sides directed toward each other. In this guide there runs a series of mutually coupled transport containers which are carried along by an endless transport chain. The weight of the transport containers is thus supported in large part by the guide and rests only partly on the transport chain. Providing a transverse tracking are the two u-profiles in which the transport containers run with transport wheels which are fully enclosed therein. The transport containers are thus pushed tightly into the track and pulled forward therein by the transport chain which is herein continuously subject to stretch. The individual positions of the transport containers hereby change gradually and may eventually result in synchronization problems of the system. In order to also be able to follow bends in the track the transport container must here have a certain freedom of transverse movement, which will however make an exact tracking more difficult. Furthermore, this apparatus is impractical in respect of maintenance and replacement of one or more of the transport containers, since these cannot be removed without problem because they are completely enclosed in the guide. The apparatus is therefore inoperative for a relatively long period during such maintenance.
The present invention has for its object, among others, to provide an apparatus of the type stated in the preamble with which these drawbacks are not associated, or at least to a considerably lesser extent.